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Commonwealth of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia (short: Australia) is a large country in Oceania, comprised of mainland Australia, the island of Tasmania and several other small islands. Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. History For 50,000 years, the continent was inhabited by Aborigines who travelled from South-East Asia. They have since left their mark on the land through traditional music, dancing and rock art, the latter of which can be viewed across the country. European contact with the continent began in 1607, when the Dutch ship Duyfken voyaged from the Dutch East Indies south to the Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland. In 1768, English explorer Captain James Cook sailed from Plymouth, in England. He discovered the eastern coast of Australia when he landed in what is now Botany Bay, Sydney, New South Wales. From there, he sailed north to the Cape York Peninsula and discovered the first Aborigines. In 1788, the British Empire's First Fleet sailed into Botany Bay, with hundreds of convicts who were overfilling prisons back in England. Sydney Cove was established, and the town's inhabitants found it increasingly difficult to live off the land, as the local Aborigines regularly attacked their land and crops. Some Aborigines were captured and taught English to become a part of English society at the town. In the nineteenth century, British exploration expanded, names such as Burke, Wills, Bass and Flinders became famous on the continent, and Sydney Cove became Sydney, a city in its own right. Over the course of the century, the continent was being divided into seven eventual colonies. The discovery of gold in the colonies of New South Wales and Victoria saw increasing expansion. It was not all good, though. Bushrangers, such as Ned Kelly and Captain Thunderbolt terrorised the local squatters, and rights for miners in the gold rushes were so lacking that Ballarat in Victoria saw the Eureka Stockade, which killed 30. In 1901, the seven colonies united to form the independent Australia. Soon afterward, Australia found itself at war with the German Empire. The first action many Australian soldiers saw was occupying German islands in the Pacific, and the most famous battle was the Gallipoli Campaign, a disaster for the Allies. The Great Depression affected Australia, and they found themselves once again at war during 1939-45. There was a much more real threat to Australia's sovereignty this time, as the Japanese Empire advanced south. Calls for Australian troops in North Africa to return to defend their country were largely ignored. Nevertheless, in the face of Japanese air raids on its north coast, Australia successfully defended itself with the aid of the United States of America, their finest moment the Kokoda Campaign in New Guinea. In the Cold War, Oriental Communism was the new threat facing Australia, and like the US, some Australian actions were condemned by its citizens, who called for the end of conscription in the Vietnam War, and for Australia to withdraw its troops. Today, Australia is an active power in the global economy, relying largely on agriculture and tourism. Military Australia's military consists of just over 80,000 full-time personnel.